Home cooking

[ng_moonmoth]

Happy Thursday! Spouse and I are foodies, which means that whenever it's running, Thursday night belongs to Top Chef: the reality show where professional chefs, all high-level and some of them quite successful, square off in a weeks-long series of culinary challenges that allow them to showcase their skills across the entire range of what one needs to be a big-time, big-name chef -- and rewards the winner with the exposure and stake that they can use to do precisely that, if they wish. Many winners have indeed done so, while others have gone the media route and been successful there.

But today's post isn't about the show, other than using it as inspiration. Each season, the chefs are likely to face a challenge like, "Make the dish that convinced you to take up cooking as a career," or "recreate a treasured family recipe." And with lots more people doing lots more home cooking these days, I'd like to offer up a similar challenge.

What is/are your signature dish/dishes? Have you made any of them recently? Even if someone else in your household is the primary cook, there may be one or two things you make that are special; you are welcome to just share those. If making your best dish amounts to cutting things up, adding some flavors, and putting the result in a bowl, that totally counts, too. And, as an escape clause for those whose culinary skills include the ability to burn water, and the best thing they make in the kitchen is "reservations": pick exactly one dish from a restaurant you often order food from, that you wish you could make yourself.

Comments

[light_of_summer]

When really good local tomatoes are in season, my signature dish is tomato rice arugula feta salad, sometimes with cucumbers added, served at room temperature or cooler, lightly dressed with a mixture of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. When I can get them, I particularly like to use brown basmati rice, Brandywine or dry-farmed Early Girl tomato varieties, Bulgarian feta cheese, and arugula varieties that tend toward a spiky leaf shape and a strongly spicy taste. But the salad is also good with less distinguished individual ingredients. I came up with this salad idea, myself, and am quite proud of it. 😊

+1 local tomatoes

[ng_moonmoth]

Yeah, that's something I wouldn't bother with when all the tomatoes one can get are sports equipment (pink footballs, orange golf balls, yellow baseballs). But in season, yes!

In similar times, my tomato thoughts turn toward tabbouleh. It's got personal resonance, too; it was a component of a pack-along lunch I made for spouse on our first real date.